Simon panicked when he saw blood trailing across the floor, especially as it was accompanied by small muddy Stanford sized shoe prints. He followed the trail in a hurry and as soon as he was close enough to the source he heard crying, Simon began to panic even more as he started running to his little figure as he saw him there sat on the floor next to a first aid kit.
"Stanford! What happened?! Where are you hurt?!" He asked grabbing his brothers shoulder.
Stanford sniffles and turned his head a bit "I'm not."
"Wha…but the blood!"
Stanford fully turned around, in his lap was a shivering little bird he had found outside. That was what the blood was from, Stanford had placed a colorful child bandaid upon the birds injured wing. Stanfords tearful eyes stared up at his big brother as if he was looking for guidance, waiting for him to tell him what to do. Simon not being much older didn't know what to do either, their parents would have the animal killed if they knew and they weren't sure if they could take it to the vet. They placed the animal in a shoe box with blankets until it's dying moments. Stanford cried over that bird, and the two brothers gave him a small grave in the backyard.
"Stanford come inside it's going to rain." Simon said pointing out the dark clouds,
"No…I want to stay." He sat in front of the grave with his legs crossed.
Simon sighed heading back inside, when it began to rain hard he returned with an umbrella. Stanford was soaked and his backside was covered with grass stains.
"You're coming inside. You're gonna get sick." Simon told him grabbing the boys hand and forcing him inside.
Stanford had once loved nature but now it felt like everything was out to get him. The now adult man was paranoid, he was sure the bird's spirit was angry which is why he could never be safe in vandal. It was after him specifically. Sometimes he felt like it was deserved, he didn't know how to break his curse so he simply tried to avoid the planet claiming he hated it when in reality he felt in debt to it. Not making it any better was how the vandals attacked them, he had to fight back there was no choice. He had a responsibility as part of the team battle force 5. Vert always tried to accommodate for the Brit's discomfort but not much could be done. He could see a twinge of guilt on his lips but Stanford never explained why. When asked about it he simply brought up how gross the planet was defensively turning away as if he could not bare to look at him. As the team flooded into the battle zone his heart sank when he saw the vandals but he listened to his leader who told him where to be, they had practiced this before and he drove towards Hatch who cackled at him and attempted to strike him with the stinger on his car. He nearly slammed into a stone wall avoiding it and quickly pulled out his noise canons. He blasted the bug and sent him crashing into Krocomoto. One thing he preferred about fighting Sark was how he could not see the pain across their faces when he made them crash. The way the vandals faces twisted when they were obviously hurt upset him but he didn't let that stop him.
"Nice shot Stanford!" Vert called as he rushed by, he loved being praised by his leader it motivated him despite his discomfort.
He got so distracted by Vert he didn't notice Sever's vehicle bite the back of his car. He gasped as the teeth moved and dug into the metal. Stanford pulled out the back canon and fired. It was a direct shot that not only blasted the vandal but the Reverb too. The reverb slammed into his car as they crashed against a stone wall. The reverb. Stanford's heart raced as he gripped the front of his suit and slowly pulled toward. He looked back, he saw blood. Blood like that day, when he was coming home from school. His parents neglected to pick the boy up so he simply walked as it wasn't too far. When he rounded a corner he saw some boys from school, and blood on the pavement. Stanford felt like that boy again, he felt like he couldn't breathe.
"Hey s-stop!" Stanford yelled, he was much smaller then these kids. They had to of been a year or two older.
"Mind your own business Rhodes!" One boy snapped turning his attention back to the bird.
"No! What did you do to him?!" Stanford yelled and pushed past him. He scooped the bird into his arms, "I'll tell my big brother Simon on you and then you'll be sorry!!"
"Oh yeah?! Well he's not here!" He pushed Stanford over making him fall onto the bird. It squawked out in pain and bit Stanfords arm.
"Ouch! I'm sorry!" He got up quickly trying to back up from them. They ended up following him until he lost them by cutting through the neighbors yard.
Stanford got out of the reverb and got close to Sever who had fallen out of his car during the accident. His arm was sliced open, Sever growled and hissed as Stanford approached. He noticed the human's face, it was almost trance like as he stepped forward. He was sure the human was going to kill him or try at the very least. Sever wasn't going down without a fight he told himself. Vert mandated that every member of battle force 5 take a medical kit in their car with them at all times. He was thankful for this as he tried to get closer holding the kit under his arm.
"Stand back meat man!" Sever snapped,
"I'm not gonna hurt you….I already have." He said gently pointing towards his arm. He took a water bottle and poured it on the sharks arm. Sever yelled and shoved Stanford to the floor defensively hiding his arm away. "Ouch! I'm sorry!"
"Stay back!"
"No! I can't leave you like this!" He stood to his feet reaching out to stroke the shark's shoulder comfortingly. He took his hand before using cotton to dab alcohol on the wound. He yelled again but he did not swat the human away.
After he cleaned the wound he bandaged him up until it was completely covered. Sever was bewildered, Stanford handed him the entire roll of bandages telling him if he bleeds through to simply bandage it again.
"Stanford are you okay?! Where are you?!" Agura called through the watch,
Stanford looked at Sever and then answered back. "Yes I'm fine sorry I got held behind by Sever. I'll be there soon."
With that the subspecies got in their mangled car and left. Sever stared at his arm and then where the reverb had been. None of this made sense to him, they were enemies. Maybe humans were more complex then he had once thought.
